MAIA, November 30, 2022 (by Dietmar Kaspar)
First-round action of the Maia Open concluded Wednesday with 2021 Roland-Garros Junior singles champion Luca van Assche taking on Swedish No. 3 seed Elias Ymer in his opening match. The 18-year-old Frenchman, who captured one title on the ITF World Tennis Tour and reached three finals on the ATP Challenger Tour in his first season on the Pro Circuit, dominated the match right from the beginning and earned the only three breaks without facing a break point to prevail 6-2, 6-1 in 69 minutes.
“It was a very good match from my side. I knew him very well because we already played twice. I tried to be focused on every point and stay very active and this worked out very well. I changed the surface from hard court to clay because I wanted to take the chance to play the last Challenger events of the season,” said van Assche, runner-up at last week’s Copa Faulcombridge in Valencia.
The World No. 176 will next oppose Bulgarian qualifier Alexandar Lazarov.
Former champion Sousa sets all-Portuguese clash
Pedro Sousa, the 2020 Maia Open champion, opened his title bid against Oleksii Kruthyk from the Ukraine. The 34-year-old Portuguese, who was sidelined from professional tennis for seven months until March and was not able to defend his Maia title last year due to a hand surgery, gained two breaks and 10 points more to claim a 6-4, 6-4 win after 73 minutes. The former World No. 99, who entered the competition by his protected ranking, will face his top seeded compatriot Nuno Borges in Thursday’s “Match of the day”.
Two years after his last match in this venue, 2020 champion Pedro Sousa gets past Oleksii Krutykh 6-4, 6-4 to record his 6th straight win at the #MaiaOpen.
What’s next? A second round meeting with top seed Nuno Borges. pic.twitter.com/DNbvu0IpoC
— Gaspar Ribeiro Lança (@gasparlanca) November 30, 2022
“It was a good match that I played today. The key to success was the consistency because he played a lot of winners and also made a lot of mistakes. I was able to keep my high level the whole match,” Sousa told the press.
About his upcoming match he added: “I hope it will be a very good match because we know each other very well. He beat me two times this year and he is playing at home, so it will be very tough for me.”
Choinski keeps Australia-dream alive
German-born Jan Choinski, who represents Great Britain, met Ukrainian Vitaliy Sachko in his opening match. The 26-year-old had a fast start without dropping a game in the first set. Choinski, ranked World No. 268, converted four of his five break-point opportunities and didn’t face a break point to succeed 6-0, 6-4 in about one hour.
“I felt really good on court from the beginning as the result shows. I served pretty well and returned with high quality. I tried to stay aggressive and it worked out. In the second set he improved his service games, but I found a way to break him in the last game to get the victory”, Choinski told Tennis TourTalk.
Asked about his expectations for the rest of the tournament, he added: “My plan was to go to Maia directly from the South-American swing, but I had to undergo a little knee surgery and went home to check it. I absolutely wanted to compete here because with a good result I still have the chance to reach the qualifying event of the Australian Open in January.”
Next up for Choinski will be Nerman Fatic from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Rodionov survives
Meanwhile, second-round action got underway with the battle of second seed Jurij Rodionov against Portuguese wild card entry Goncalo Oliveira. After losing the first set, the 23-year-old Austrian fought back to level the match. In the tie-break of the deciding set, the World No. 120 dropped only one point and finished by an ace to advance 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(1) in two and a half hours. The Nuremberg native will face Australian No. 5 seed Aleksandar Vukic in the stage of the last eight, who cruised past qualifier Evgeny Karlovskiy 6-3, 6-1 in 52 minutes.
The second round will conclude on Thursday. Play at Complexo de Ténis da Maia will start at 11:00 a.m. local time.
Wednesday Results
Singles – First Round
Luca van Assche (FRA) – (3) Elias Ymer (SWE) 6-2, 6-1
(PR) Pedro Sousa (POR) – Oleksii Krutykh (UKR) 6-4, 6-4
Jan Choinski (GBR) – Vitaliy Sachko (UKR) 6-0, 6-4
(Q) Maximilian Neuchrist (AUT) – (WC) Joao Domingues (POR) 6-2, 7-5
Singles – Second Round
(2) Jurij Rodionov (AUT) – (WC) Goncalo Oliveira (POR) 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(1)
(5) Aleksandar Vukic – (Q) Evgeny Karlovskiy 6-3, 6-1
Ivan Gakhov – Andrea Collarini (ARG) 4-6, 7-5, ret.
